


The Healing Properties of Chocolate and Friendship

by bejesusness



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Episode: s04e06 Rejoined, Gen, and only in the background, post-episode, romantic pairings are unrequited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23619760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bejesusness/pseuds/bejesusness
Summary: Jadzia and Garak bond over being queer and sad.
Relationships: Jadzia Dax & Elim Garak, Jadzia Dax/Lenara Kahn, Julian Bashir/Elim Garak
Comments: 14
Kudos: 75





	The Healing Properties of Chocolate and Friendship

Lenara boarded the shuttle. Jadzia knew in her gut that she would. But she’d been hoping despite everything that Lenara would stay. That they could be together. 

Jadzia took a deep breath, trying to recenter herself. She went back to ops and the rest of the day passed her by in a blur. After her shift, she spent the evening at Ben’s—where she finally allowed herself to cry—but managed to make it back to her own room to sleep, despite insistence from her best friend that she was more than welcome to stay the night.

A week later, the pain in her heart wasn’t any better, but Jadzia was learning to live with it. Her friends all cared about her so much, and she didn’t want to worry them. 

Her lunch hour found herself in the replimat with a slice of chocolate caramel cheesecake and a bowl of some sort of Vulcan steamed vegetable dish. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was—she only ordered it to at least keep the appearance that she was okay. She scanned the area for a table and saw Garak sitting alone off to the side, not quite in the corner, but still angled so he could see the entire room. Despite the handful of vacant tables between them, and the desire she felt when she arrived to be alone, she seemed to be pulled by some strange invisible force over to him. As she approached, Garak looked up from his soup and gave her a polite smile. 

“Good afternoon, Lieutenant. Excuse me—Lieutenant Commander now, isn’t it?” He asked with a pointed look to the pips on her collar.

“Dax is fine,” Jadzia said, not willing to allow him her first name.

“Dax, then,” he agreed and gestured to the chair across from him. “Would you care to join me?”

She nodded her thanks, set her tray down, and sat. Jadzia wasn’t sure how to start a conversation with Garak. If she was honest, she didn’t even really know why she was sitting there in front of him. So she decided to let Garak choose how to proceed and focus on her food for now. She went straight for the cheesecake, rearranging the chocolate chips with her fork before scooping a bit up and plopping it into her mouth.

“Still not over her, I see,” Garak observed with a look that Jadzia couldn’t quite decipher.

She paused and looked up at him and the cheesecake almost fell out of her mouth. She hurriedly brought a hand to cover her mouth and swallowed, embarrassed to be caught off guard. This was Garak. Of course he knew. He had a distinct knack for knowing everything that was going on around the station. Once she recovered from the shock, she asked, “So you heard about Lenara?” simply testing the water before deciding how to proceed. 

“The doctor told me at our last lunch—only because I asked, I assure you. I’d heard the rumors and wanted clarification on a few cultural specifics.”

“I see,” Jadzia replied carefully. She knew there was gossip making its way around the station. But hearing about it was never fun. “You could have always asked me yourself.”

“Surely you wouldn’t have appreciated an acquaintance you don’t know well and don’t quite trust coming up to you and asking about your personal life,” Garak said in the faux innocent voice he so often used.

“Maybe so,” Jadzia relented, “But I think I might not have minded so much. If it was you, that is.”

“Oh?” Garak’s eye ridges raised in interest.

“Well, you can relate, can’t you? Being in love with someone, knowing that society would prefer to keep you apart. That their friends and family don’t want you to have anything to do with them. They don’t trust you to even be around them.”

At first Garak worried she had somehow found out about the affair he’d participated in earlier in his life. But there was no way possible she could have known about that, and as she went on, it was apparent that what she was referring to was even worse— _ him. _

“But then again, he never offered to throw away his entire future for you, huh?” 

Garak’s face hadn’t changed the whole time, but Jadzia Dax had within her seven precious lifetimes worth of experience. She could see the dread growing in his eyes when he realized what she was getting at that this was straying into rocky territory for him. While Jadzia was interested in talking to Garak about his intentions toward Julian, she was amenable to look past that at the moment and circle back to herself.

She elaborated, “You know, I was ready and willing to give up my home planet, my core values, everything. I would have even sacrificed Dax. If I was kicked out of Trill for good, they’d never be able to get a new host.”

“I must admit it was quite the grand gesture.” He stirred his soup with a vague air of what Jadzia could only interpret as wistfulness. “Sadly,” he said, “some people just don’t take well to such shows of commitment.” 

That caught her attention more than anything else. Something in the way he said it. “Speaking from experience?” she asked.

“Perhaps,” he answered, once again evasive as ever. The conversation seemed to come to a halt at that point. Jadzia figured they would be spending the rest of their meal in an almost but not quite companionable silence, until Garak spoke up again. “You must have really loved her.”

Jadzia hummed an affirmative around her fork as she took another bite.

“I’m sorry,” Garak said, and it was the most genuine Jadzia’d ever heard him. “In my experience, the types of wounds that hurt the most are the ones that don’t leave a scar.”

Jadzia searched his eyes, for what exactly, she wasn’t sure yet. “How do you live with it?” she asked.

“Well, I see you’ve already discovered the healing properties of chocolate,” Garak said with a smile. Jadzia managed a small smile of her own in reply. “Other than that,” he continued, “I find that if you pretend everything is okay, you can trick yourself into thinking that someday maybe it will be.” 

Jadzia nodded gravely. “Fake it til you make it.”

Garak’s face screwed up in distaste at the oversimplification. “I suppose that’s one way to put it.” 

Jadzia could feel her lips turning up at the corners. Somehow, she felt lighter than she had at the beginning of her lunch hour. “Thanks, Garak,” she said, the implication in the sentiment loaded in a way Garak had no trouble understanding.

“Think nothing of it.”

**Author's Note:**

> my 2 reasons for writing this: 1) i rewatched rejoined and had a lot of feelings 2) i wanted jadzia and garak to be friends  
> thank you.


End file.
